It is conventional to incorporate an absorbing compound or absorber, in particular, an ultraviolet ray absorbing compound, in an image element to absorb light in a specific wavelength region. The ultraviolet absorbing light-insensitive layer is used, for example, in a silver halide photographic element, to control the spectral composition of light incident upon a photographic emulsion layer, and to absorb or to remove ultraviolet light produced by static discharge, which occurs when the surfaces of the photographic element come into contact during production or treatment processes. Electric charges are generated by friction of separation. When accumulation of static electricity by charging reaches a certain limiting value, atmospheric discharge occurs at a particular moment and a discharge spark fires at the same time. When the photographic element is exposed to light by discharging, static marks appear after development.
Different methods for incorporating an ultraviolet ray absorber into a photographic element have been described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,739,888, 3,215,530, 3,352,681, and 3,707,375, where an oil soluble absorber is dissolved in a high boiling organic solvent (HBS), and mixed under high shear or turbulence together with an aqueous medium, which may also contain a surfactant, in order to break the organic phase into submicron particles dispersed in the continuous aqueous phase.
Prior art also teaches to incorporate colloidal silver particles in a silver halide photographic element to stop unwanted chemicals from entering the light sensitive emulsion layers during photographic processing. The unwanted chemicals can react with couplers and sensitizing dyes to change photographic properties.
In color light-sensitive photographic elements, it is preferable to incorporate both ultraviolet ray absorber/HBS dispersions and colloidal silver particles in layers above the silver halide emulsion layers for maximum protection. Therefore, it is not uncommon that both ultraviolet ray absorber/HBS dispersions and colloidal silver particles are incorporated in the same light-insensitive hydrophilic layer. A negative aspect of such a layer structure is the appearance of oily-bubble like spot defects in that layer and in adjacent layers. Such oily-bubble like spot defects are formed largely due to coating solution instability. It is likely that the presence of colloidal silver particles in the coating solution destabilizes ultraviolet ray absorber/HBS dispersions, and therefore induces the formation of oily-like particulates in the micron-size range. During the coating process, such large oily-like particulates can diffuse into, for example, the adjacent emulsion layers appearing as spot defects, and the adjacent outermost surface protective layer causing surface tackiness and degrading the layer scratch and abrasion resistance.
A foremost objective of the present invention is to provide a silver halide photographic element comprising ultraviolet ray absorbers and colloidal silver particles having good coating solution stability. Another objective of the present invention is to provide an outermost protective layer that has excellent resistance to oily-bubble spot defect formation, and excellent physical scratch and abrasion properties.